Ariel Castro's first victim hung on wall 'like a fish'

Nov. 5, 2013
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Michelle Knight in a Cleveland courtroom Aug. 1, 2013, during the sentencing phase for Ariel Castro, who pleaded guilty to abducting and abusing her and two other women for a decade. Castro committed suicide in jail in September. / Tony Dejak, AP

by Michael Winter, USA TODAY

by Michael Winter, USA TODAY

Two months after Ariel Castro hanged himself in prison, the first of his three kidnap victims has offered graphic details of the torture and abuse she suffered during the 11 years he held her captive in his Cleveland home.

In the most startling revelation released in advance, 32-year-old Michelle Knight told TV psychologist Dr. Phil McGraw of being "tied up like a fish" with orange extension cord and being hung on a bedroom wall "like an ornament."

"That's the only way I can describe it," she said, using her hands to draw a picture in the air of being suspended by "my feet, my neck and by the arms" for days at a time - with no food or water or being allowed to use the bathroom.

Knight's interview will air Tuesday and Wednesday. TV networks were interviewing McGraw and showing clips Monday.

"I said, 'please don't do this to me'," Knight said in another clip shown Monday night on CNN's Anderson Cooper 360. "He said, 'I can't take you back.'"

She also said Castro "was obsessed with prostitutes and also he thought I was a 13-year-old prostitute. When he found out my real age, he got mad."

Knight, Amanda Berry and Gina DeJesus escaped May 6. Castro pleaded guilty and was sentenced to life in prison, but he was found dead in his cell Sept. 3.

After the bedroom torture, Castro took Knight, who was 21 at the time, to his basement, which McGraw described on NBC's Today show as "just nasty - it's filthy, it's cold, it's dark." There, he chained Knight to a pole and put a motorcycle helmet over her head, closing the visor and leaving her.

Knight said that she couldn't lie down because the chain around her neck and waist was too short, so she would just eventually pass out.

Knight said in the promotional preview that she was "the most hated one."

She was Castro's only victim for almost a year.

"He said, 'When I get two other girls in the house I'll let you go,'" she told McGraw.

Castro then imprisoned Berry and DeJesus, and the trio were sexually, physically and emotionally abused for 10 more years until Berry pushed out a door and yelled for help.

In their interview, McGraw said Knight told him she had "one beacon" of hope - her 2½-year-old son, who is now 13.

"She said, 'I have to live for him. And I'm fighting to stay alive for him.'"